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Civil Rights and Poetry
The Civil Rights movement, which pushed for African American rights and equality during the years of legal Segregation in the United States, inspired numerous powerful poems by poets living during and after that era, but those poems reciprocally served to inspire the movement as well. For many within the movement, poetry served as the best way to express heartfelt truths, for others it was a rallying cry. Dudley Randall, who would go on to publish many black writers who could not find outlets in traditional (and white-dominated) markets, wrote the "Ballad of Birmingham" in 1969, six years after the events that inspired it. The 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, claimed the lives of four young girls (two young boys were also killed in a separate race-related incident that day). Dudley's poem became an anthem for the movement, and even today, as Segregation has officially ended, the poem is sung and performed by people hoping to continue the push towards equality and mutual acceptance. Sample poem: Ballad of Birmingham BY DUDLEY RANDALL “Mother dear, may I go downtown'' ''Instead of out to play, And march the streets of Birmingham In a Freedom March today?” '' '' “No, baby, no, you may not go, For the dogs are fierce and wild, And clubs and hoses, guns and jails Aren’t good for a little child.” '' '' “But, mother, I won’t be alone. Other children will go with me, And march the streets of Birmingham To make our country free.” '' '' “No, baby, no, you may not go, For I fear those guns will fire. But you may go to church instead And sing in the children’s choir.” '' '' She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair, And bathed rose petal sweet, And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands, And white shoes on her feet. '' '' The mother smiled to know her child Was in the sacred place, But that smile was the last smile To come upon her face. '' '' For when she heard the explosion, Her eyes grew wet and wild. She raced through the streets of Birmingham Calling for her child. '' '' She clawed through bits of glass and brick,' Then lifted out a shoe. “O, here’s the shoe my baby wore, ''But, baby, where are you?” ' Copyright © 1968 by Dudley Randall. Reprinted with respect to the Estate of Dudley Randall and used here for educational purposes. Sources: Garcia, Kevin. "Park Gives Unflinching View of Birmingham's Painful Past." KevinGarcia.com. Kinja, 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. . "Harlem Project Langston Hughes." Harlem Project: New York Perspectives on Civil Rights. University at Albany. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. . "Poems of the Freedom Movement." Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. . Rampersad, Arnold, ed. The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print. "Remembering Civil Rights History, When 'words Meant Everything'" PBS News Hour. PBS, 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. . Yadah Praise Dance Ministry of Light of the World Family Worship Church. ""Ballad of Birmingham"" YouTube. 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. . =